Diablo III's endgame is about to change in a big way: characters in Blizzard's action-RPG will soon be able to gain 100 more levels.

The next Diablo III patch will implement what's called the "Paragon" system, a mechanic that will reward players with stat bonuses and extra Magic Find, a stat that makes enemies drop better loot. Once you hit level 60, you'll be able to gain 100 more of these Paragon levels.

Here's an explanation via Blizzard's blog:

After you hit level 60, any further experience you earn from killing monsters will begin to count toward Paragon levels

There are 100 Paragon levels

Every Paragon level will reward you with:
* Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you'd gain from a normal level
* 3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find

In addition, a distinctive increasingly-impressive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown.

We know that a lot of you out there are level 60 — maybe on multiple characters — and this system provides a way to make progress every time you log in to the game.

To support the new system, Nephalem Valor (NV) will now also provide a 15% experience bonus per stack, applicable toward Paragon levels. The first Paragon level should take about as long as it took most players to get from level 59 to 60, and the experience requirement will rise from there. The time to reach the upper Paragon levels approximates the long-term time investment required to get a level 99 character in Diablo II.

Current Magic Find levels will be capped as Blizzard moves toward untying the stat from gear:

While the benefits to progression are obvious, you may be asking how this impacts Magic Find on items. We wanted to find a solution that was not only very forgiving of gear swapping, but one that would ultimately help us slowly and gently move Magic Find off of items in the future. It's such an intrinsically important stat to the core purpose of playing the game that tying it to gear — which is a customization system in many ways — is ultimately an approach that would continue to cause problems. We need to transition away from it, and do so in a way that doesn't flip the entire game end-over-end.

With the Paragon system in place, we're capping Magic Find and Gold Find to 300% (before Nephalem Valor). This means that without any Magic Find gear at all, you'll hit the cap when you reach Paragon level 100. This way, you can continue wearing your current Magic Find gear as you slowly but surely work to gain Paragon levels. Eventually, once you hit Paragon level 100, you'll have the freedom to completely focus every slot on stats that help your character kill stuff faster and stay alive longer. The idea is that if you're currently swapping gear in and out for the Magic Find bonuses, you can continue to do so… but gain enough Paragon levels, and you won't need to anymore.